Many years ago, my friend Jenne had a car load of items to donate, including some really nice clothes that she was planning to give to Goodwill. I’m telling someone else’s story from memory, so I might have the details wrong, but this is what I remember her saying.
Her sister C. was with her when they drove up to the donation door–they arrived a few minutes after closing and nobody was there. A sign said do not leave anything by the door after hours. The wording was rather severe and implied that they could get in trouble for leaving it, but Jenne needed to unload this stuff because she was under a time crunch. Maybe she was heading out of town or something, but she had to get rid of these clothes.
She and C. drove over to the fast food parking lot nearby and discussed their options. They could throw it away in the fast-food trash bins, but the clothes were really nice. Somebody could really use them. She didn’t want to take them back and store them.
They finally concocted a daring plan. Jenne’s sister would drive, they would shoot up into the unloading zone, Jenne would fling open the door and toss out the bags and then give the signal for C. to gun it and tear out of there. Goodwill was going to get her high quality donations, whether they wanted them or not.
They agreed to this risky plan, crossing back to the Goodwill parking lot. They approached the drop-off door, hearts racing. C. slammed on the brakes, Jenne hurled the huge black garbage bags packed with beautiful suits and skirts and shoes out the door, one after the other, then slammed the door shut. “GO-GO-GO!”
C. gunned it and they tore out of there, laughing hysterically.
I thought of that story the other day when I was driving down the road and saw the van for an organization called Second Helpings that collects good leftovers from restaurants and, well, in their own words:
[W]e rescue prepared and perishable food, re-prepare it into nutritious meals, and distribute those meals to over 50 social services organizations that feed hungry people. We also use some of the food we rescue to train disadvantaged adults for careers in the culinary field, helping to eliminate hunger at its source.
A friend of mine works at a big factory that makes bread products, and he said that they generate a lot of leftover bread with test runs (somebody has to taste-test for quality–which very well may be my dream job, taste-testing bagels every morning, but I digress…). So when I saw the Second Helpings number, I decided to phone them and see if they would be happy to have a lot of freshly baked bread to distribute throughout the city.
They put me through to a friendly guy. I think his name was Joe. I explained about the bread, and he said, “We can’t take any more. We have too much.”
“Too much bread?”
“Yes, with all the bakeries in town, we already have more than we can use.”
I couldn’t believe it. “You have too much bread?”
He said they can’t use all that they pick up. Some of it goes to waste.
I felt sad. Sick. Depressed.
I thought of Jenne having to secretly hurl out those bags of lovely clothes because there was no other good place to take them where people could use them.
If you peek in the back of our Goodwill store, you’ll see mountains of clothing heaped high in enormous bins. So many people in the world are cold and could use the long pants and warm coats that are buried somewhere in that pile…if only we could get it to them.
All that bread gets tossed into trash bins, even though hundreds of children go hungry every morning in our city. If only we could get it to them.
It’s a strange world we live in, isn’t it?
Bread for the World reports that 850 million people in the world go hungry. They say that in the United States, 12.4 million children live in households where people have to skip meals or eat less to make ends meet. That means one in ten households in the U.S. are living with hunger or are at risk of hunger.
I started to imagine loading up bags of bagels into the van, driving slowly through downtown near the parks where some homeless people sleep on benches, sliding open the side door and having the kids heave out bag after bag of bagels.
“Go, Mom! GO!” the kids would shriek, as the cops turned a corner to investigate.
It’s a strange fantasy in this world of contradictions, concocting a nutty way for hungry people to get some bags of bread and bagels, whether they want them or not.
Fortunately, in the years since Jenne’s Goodwill incident, I’ve found some other great places to donate clothing. One place ships it to the Ukraine. I also take it to a friend who has relationships with families who live in the inner-city and are really struggling. She can give them a bag of clothes that fit their children and give it as a friend.
And I’m sure if I work at it, I’ll be able to find a way to salvage those bagels. Someone’s going to get that bread, whether they want it or not.
My husband works for a factory that makes bread mixes for commercial bakeries. He works in the QA Lab where they test the bread, pastries, doughnuts, etc.
I hate to rain on your dream job, but they don’t taste test anything. They run chemical tests on the mixes and on the finished products (weight, viscosity, number of holes in the bread, etc.). It’s actually more like a food “chemist” job than a bakery taste tester.
My husband has had a “bread ministry” of sorts for years. He collects all the leftover bread loaves and desserts and delivers them to friends and family. We found the same thing … that the food banks, etc., have “too much bread” … but average people with basic needs really seem to appreciate his home delivery service.
~Debi
Sometimes the giving does outweigh the possibility of distribution. I guess that’s why the organization end is just as important!
I’m a new reader… came here through Callapidder Days. Am enjoying it a lot so far.
Debi: I love that your husband has just invented his own distribution service. And while I want to get the bread to the needy, we do eat a lot of bread and bread-ish things here at the Kroeker house–so I have to admit, I’d love it if he’d swing by our place with a loaf or two!
Anna: I’m so glad to meet you–thanks for leaving a comment. Your comment does make me appreciate those who are trying to do it all: collect, train people (like at Goodwill), distribute, etc. I’m starting to think that I should just do like Debi’s husband and try to pull off some bread delivery myself (although I’d organize a more civilized version than I described in the post–not tossing it out the van door to the homeless)?
It just seems so paradoxical that we have so much that we can’t even give it away, while in other nations their need is so great and we can’t even get it to them.
I’d love to know how you solve the bread distribution dilemma. You’re my hero!
We obviously have a lot of work to do in our society to make sure we get the goods to the right people. I know I can be doing my part better.
And on a side note, not only are businesses and charities being, shall we say picky, with what they take, but so are some of the less fortunate. I can’t tell you how many time I have offered some food (i.e. apples, granola bars, chips, etc.) to homeless on the street who refuse it. Apparently they only want money. It is a little disheartening at times.
Carol: I’m going to explore the bread thing this week…we shall see.
anordinarymom: Wow, so you’ve been refused? That’s fascinating and as you said, disheartening. When all you want to do is share, and someone turns you down, that can be confusing.
Your imaginings are my reality. I regularly carry all of the collected clothes from family and friends in my car during the cold months here, as well as drive by and deliver food to people who, for one reason or another, can’t or won’t make it to a place that will feed, clothe, or shelter them. That, my friend, is how you “get it to them” when they are unable to get themselves to “it.”
Amanda: You give me inspiration–to know that you’re just out there doing it is so fabulous. There is one place we deliver stuff to downtown, kind of a dime store ministry, that is located at a more convenient spot for people who wouldn’t be able to catch a ride up to the suburbs to our fancy-schmancy Goodwill. After reading your generous reality, I think I really do need to drive around with bagels and bread crammed in the back of the van. Thanks for writing and showing us a real, practical, straightforward means of giving!
Freecycle or the Free category on Craig’s List is my new favorite place to divest ourselves of extra clothes and goods.
Why let Goodwill charge a premium ($3.99 a shirt, here) when there are people who need clothes without cost?
I’ve never had a free item go untaken. Likewise, our local charity thrift shop has a free table for day old bread. Anyone is welcome to take it, regardless of qualifying income or home.
Just found your blog through Home Sanctuary and look forward to reading more!
HA! Just reading it made me laugh right out loud. Yes, that’s EXACTLY how the story went. We illegally donated clothes. I can remember, too, that at the time I was MUCH smaller than I had been in the past and so we agreed that if they stopped us (security guard?) we’d claim they obviously weren’t OUR clothes any fool could see they didn’t fit us!
Great post, Annie!
Meredith: Great ideas! Thanks so much for your suggestions–I am in the process of finding some possible takers for the bread, but your other ideas are great, what with Craig’s List and Freecyclers. I’ve been aware of both of those, even buying things from Craig’s List, but never signed up to post anything. Perhaps I shall, now that you recommend them.
Jenne: I’m so glad you stopped by, and I’m delighted to know that memory served me so well–sometimes it doesn’t these days, you know. I love that phrase, “illegal donations.” You are such a rebel. The kindest, most generous rebel I know.
I am a single mother of three ,I only have one still at home,she is 18 and I am so very proud of her.I don’t have a car to get her to school and the money to buy her the best of clothes .She never complains,and she makes really good grades i school,it makes me want to cry to think she has the life we have.I was in a car accident over three years ago and have not been able to work at all,I have damage to my back and neck,somedays I can’t even get out of bed.I have signed up on disability in hopes that I can make a better life for my daughter.I am all she has and we live in low income housing and her check runs out in a few months ,I don’t know what I can do for her,she is such a good kid.She is a senior this year and I would love to find a way to find funds for her to have good clothes and go to college,I am in no way doing this for me,I am sick and just want so much for her, I could never of ask for a better daughter.
Thank you,Shelia Back